Smith v. Baker

The defendant took his children, when they had whooping-cough, a contagious disease, to the boarding-house of the plaintiff to board, and exposed her child and children of oilier boarders to it, who took it. The jury have found that this was done without exercising due care to prevent taking disease into the hoarding-house. She was put to expense, care, and labor in consequence of her child’s having it, and boarders were kept away by the presence of it, whereby she lost profits. Words which import the charge of having a contagious distemper are, in themselves, actionable, because prudent…